


Ghostly Hands, Ghostly Talks

by Nyctae



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Dialogue Heavy, Family Feels, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Number Five | The Boy Has Issues, Number Five | The Boy-centric, Pre-Season/Series 02, Rated M for Suicidal Thoughts, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:08:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26977111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyctae/pseuds/Nyctae
Summary: “Klaus, family meeting! It’s about Five!”“Ask her what’s going on!”"He’s drunk, and he’s been babbling about someone murdering him."
Relationships: Number Five | The Boy & Ben Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy & The Hargreeves (Umbrella Academy), The Hargreeves Family
Comments: 8
Kudos: 216





	Ghostly Hands, Ghostly Talks

**Author's Note:**

> **Trigger Warning:** This fic is centred around a character who is drunk and suicidal. If this may trigger you, please, do not read this.
> 
> This fic also diverges from canon, and the apocalypse is stopped before the events of "The White Violin." Reposted due to accidentally back-dating.

“Do you even know how to knit?”

“No, but that’s what practice is for, Benny-boo.”

“Don’t call me that. How are you supposed to practice if you don’t even know where to start?”

Allison and Diego rushed through his open door before Klaus could respond.

“Klaus, family meeting! It’s about Five!”

Klaus dropped his needles and yarn at Allison’s urgent tone. He shared a look with Ben, who implored, “Ask her what’s going on!”

Klaus repeated Ben’s question as they followed Allison and Diego to Vanya’s room.

“He’s drunk, and he’s been babbling about someone murdering him, but like he doesn’t seem concerned about it.”

Diego joined in, “Didn’t we end the apocalypse last week? And didn’t Five say he was completely sure there were no more threats and that the stupid time organisation thing wasn’t coming after us anymore?”

“Yes, but… God, just listen to him, and you’ll understand. Vanya!” she called, knocking on her door.

The door opened a few seconds later. “Yeah—? What’s going on?”

“Family meeting in the living room.” Allison grabbed her hand, taking her along with the other three down to the living room.

The scene before Ben was part of a play he was far too familiar with, but the cast was wrong. Five had settled himself—or maybe Luther had—in the corner of one of the couches, half of his torso lazily hanging off the arm. He was mumbling under his breath and looking far too blissful. Luther was on one of the adjacent couches, staring at Five worriedly. A glance at Klaus confirmed they were thinking the same thing.

Allison sat next to Luther while Vanya and Klaus chose the couch opposite of theirs. Ben knew he didn’t really need to take a seat, but he still sat next to Five. Whether Five’s subsequent shiver was coincidence or not Ben didn’t know.

Diego opted to forgo the couches and instead knelt in front of Five. “Hey, Five, bud, you’ve been scaring Al and Luther into thinking someone’s coming to hurt us. You wanna fill us in on what’s going on?”

The content look on Five’s face remained, but he did sigh as he opened his eyes and looked at Diego. “Everything’s fine.”

“Last time you got this drunk, you said it was because of the apocalypse, and the last time you said everything’s fine, we had to go stop said apocalypse with your friends trying to kill us. Wanna change your answer?”

Five shook his head. “They weren’t my friends, and the Commission's gone. Well, not gone-gone, but they’re not trying to kill us or end the world again.” He chuckled to himself. “Imagine if I had destroyed the whole Commission. That’d be one hell of a legacy.”

“Then what did you mean?” Luther asked, breaking Five’s daydream.

“By what?” He looked around at his family. “Wow, the whole family’s here. Who died this time?”

Ben noted how frustrated Diego and Luther looked, but Allison spoke before they could, “We’re worried about you, Five. you kept asking about what would happen if you were murdered.”

“Oh, that! Just part of a hypothesis I had, and I can’t really test it twice. Figured it’d just be easier to ask and get a straight answer.”

Klaus looked over at Luther and Allison, gesturing to Five. “How much did he drink? He seems way too chipper for, you know, being him.”

“Looks like a whole bottle of vodka _again_.”

Diego groaned at Luther’s answer.

“What do they mean again?” Ben asked, and Klaus voiced the question to the group.

“During the whole Hazel and Cha-Cha thing, Five decided to drink a whole bottle at the library.”

Five closed his eyes and laughed at the memory. “Yeah, but I didn’t throw up on you like promised.”

“Oh God, you’re not going to throw up again, are you?” Diego shuffled back a few inches.

Five shook his head. “No, no, I’ll be fine.”

Ben wanted to thank Vanya as she pulled the conversation back to its original purpose. “Five, what do you mean you have a hypothesis? What’s the question?”

“Well, those are two different things. The question is if you would be more upset if I were murdered or if I killed myself. My hypothesis is that you’d take the murder better, but it’d probably cause Luther to get all paranoid and Diego to get hellbent on hunting down whoever killed me.”

Everyone froze. It was silent. It felt like someone stopped time.

Eventually, Diego moved, placing a hand on Five’s knee, who immediately pulled his leg up on the couch. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing.”

“People aren’t suicidal for no reason—”

Five’s sudden snort cut Diego off. “You don’t understand— not that I’d expect you to. I’d still be the smartest even with half my brain missing—but anyways, that’s not important. I just need to know which is better.” He was still far too casual about the situation for Ben’s—and probably everyone else’s—liking, but his drunkenly happy and blissed out demeanour was fading.

“Then explain it to us.”

Ben was sure there was an insult ready on Five’s tongue, but everyone knew Vanya was his favourite. “There’s nothing. I prevented the apocalypse.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Luther voiced the question in everyone’s mind.

“Of course, it’s a good thing, but I spent my whole life working towards one goal, and I finished it only to find myself in a body set back forty-five years.”

“Wasn’t your goal to save us and have us be a family again?”

Five looked at Vanya, corners of his lips twitching up. “To save _you_ and have _you_ be a family again. It was never a _we_ situation, but that doesn’t matter, I’ve figured out a way where we all win.”

After no one replied for a while, still stunned, Five continued with a smile, “I die and stay as a ghost. Then Ben won’t be alone, and if anything were to go wrong again, Klaus is here to relay.”

“No! Tell him no! Let me talk to him!” Ben shouted over his family’s chorus of panicked “no!”s and “what!?”s.

“It’s not that big of a deal. I could still keep you safe if something went wrong,” Five muttered, resting his cheek against the arm of the couch.

Diego groaned. “That’s not the issue! We don’t care about our safety! We care about you!”

“Then just let me do this!”

The chorus repeated, and Five was becoming more frantic and restless, replacing his previous calm attitude.

“He’s getting pissed, and he’ll try to jump or run or who knows what. Just let me talk to him, please,” Ben begged.

Klaus suddenly clapped his hands to silence everyone. “Okay! So Ben wants to have a little chat with his second favourite brother!”

“Ben’s here?” Allison and Vanya asked simultaneously.

“He’s always around like our own creepy little security camera.”

“Klaus, this is serious.”

“Ben!” cried Vanya.

He was surprised to see her staring in his direction before noticing that everyone was looking at him. Klaus’ hands were glowing, and he was smiling.

The thing more surprising was the weight that slumped against his side. A moment later, an arm wrapped around his waist, and Ben wasted no time in putting an arm around Five’s shoulders.

“I know you’re all excited, but how ‘bout we play catch-up with everyone’s favourite ghost brother another time?”

Luther started to protest, but Ben cut him off, “I love you guys a lot, but I need to talk to Five alone. We’ll talk tomorrow.”

He shot Vanya a thankful look when she told them good night and shuffled out of the living room. Allison and Luther followed her lead, and after some hesitation, Diego patted Five’s knee before leaving.

“Five? Is it okay if Klaus stays?” Ben asked, receiving a shrug in response. “The connection works better if he’s near me, but he can go if you want.”

This time, Five shook his head. “I miss you.”

“I miss you too, all of you, but I don't want you to die. Plus, I don’t think you want to be stuck with Klaus forever.”

Five didn’t laugh and remained silent even when Klaus pretended to be offended.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Ben offered.

Five shrugged. “I’m tired.”

“In general or of living?”

“Both. I’m nearly sixty in a thirteen year old’s body, and I finished the one thing I worked for all my life.”

“You can have more than one life goal. Ha, look at me, talking about life.”

“You didn’t deserve to die.”

“You don’t either.”

“I’ve killed so many people...”

“And you think I haven’t?”

“I don’t want to see them die again.”

Oh.

Klaus interrupted, “But you stopped the apocalypse?”

“Body-wise I’m thirteen, and you’re all thirty.”

_Oh._

“Apocalypse or not, I’m going to bury you all again.”

“Let’s not worry about that now.”

“I have nothing to do but worry.”

Ben pulled him closer.

“Do we have to talk about this tomorrow?”

“Mhm.”

Five groaned, and Ben rubbed his shoulder. “How about you sleep?”

“But—”

“You’ll see me again tomorrow, and even if Klaus can’t make me corporeal, we can still talk through him.”

Five seemed to ponder on what Ben said before whispering, “Promise?”

“I’d swear on my life if I had one.” He said, smiling when Five let out an amused exhale. “Klaus and I will stay with you.”

Five nodded, letting his eyes shut, and not long after, Ben heard quiet snores. Klaus sprung into action, helping Ben lie their brother down. He switched off the lamps while Ben covered Five with the blanket from the back of the couch.

“Ready?” Klaus asked, settling back down.

Ben nodded and ruffled Five's hair.

The room darkened as the blue glow of Klaus’ hands fizzled and faded. Ben felt the oh-so familiar floating feeling start to course through him.

“Good night,” Ben muttered, and his hand fell through his brother’s head.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this! I'm not good at writing dialogue between more than two or three characters, so this was a challenge. Let me know how I did and how to improve.  
> If you liked this, you should read my other Umbrella Academy fics and check me out on Instagram: [@vi.nyctae](https://www.instagram.com/vi.nyctae/?hl=en)!


End file.
